Marion Lorne

Art Carney Born November 4, 1918 in Mount Vernon, New York, USA Died November 9, 2003 in Chester, Connecticut, USA Birth Name Arthur William Matthew Carney Nickname Mr. C Height 5' 10" (1.78 m) Art Carney was born on November 4, 1918 in Mount Vernon, New York, USA as Arthur William Matthew Carney. He was an actor, known for Firestarter (1984), Harry and Tonto (1974) and Last Action Hero (1993). He was married to Jean Wilson Myers (remarried), Barbara Carney and Jean Wilson Myers. He died on November 9, 2003 in Chester, Connecticut, USA. Spouse (3) Jean Wilson Myers (remarried) (10 March 1979 - 9 November 2003) (his death) Barbara Carney (22 December 1966 - 1977) ( divorced) Jean Wilson Myers (15 August 1940 - 1965) ( divorced) ( 3 children) Brother of actor/director Fred Carney. Father of actor Brian Carney. "Art Carney Meets the Sorcerer's Apprentice" on The ABC TV Network. The show aired in the early 1960s. He was a voice-over regular on the popular 1930s radio series "Gangbusters", which featured weekly episodes based on actual crime incidents. Each program ended with various descriptions of wanted criminals, many of whom were later arrested owing to avid listener participation. The voice of Red Lantern on radio's "The Land of the Lost" was originally done by Junius Matthews, who did a great number of movies around that time. This show overlapped with his schedule, so it was taken over by Art Carney. Originated the role of Felix Unger (opposite Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison) in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" on Broadway in 1965. Won a talent contest in elementary school and another at A.B. Davis High School, in Mount Vernon, from which he graduated in 1936. Had only a high school education, no formal training and never took an acting class. A wound in the leg while serving as a World War II infantryman left one leg slightly shorter and gave Carney a noticeable limp for the rest of his life. Won the Academy Award for playing the 72-year-old Harry Coombes in the sentimental film Harry and Tonto (1974). He was only 55 at the time but used makeup, grew a mustache, whitened his hair and stopped masking his limp. Suffered a nervous breakdown over the end of his 25-year marriage to wife Jean owing to his addictions to alcohol, amphetamines and barbiturates. After recovering fully in the 1970s, he won not only an Academy Award but also his wife: They remarried. He talked his way into a job with the popular Horace Heidt Orchestra and went on the road for more than three years, doing impressions, novelty songs, and some announcing for Heidt's radio show "Pot o' Gold". In 1941, when the orchestra was asked to make a movie, Carney was handed a small role. He also specialized in dialects. Jackie Gleason once stated that Carney was 90% responsible for the success of The Honeymooners (1955). He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6627 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on February 8, 1960. Was nominated for Broadway's 1969 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for Brian Friel's "Lovers". In a case of art (no pun intended) imitating life, the last words he ever spoke on-screen were his characters dying words: "I'm outta here..." in the action-comedy-fantasy film Last Action Hero (1993). Before playing Ed Norton on The Honeymooners (1955), Carney played a policeman who gets hit by a barrel of flour in the first Honeymooners sketch on The Jackie Gleason Show (1952). Beat out Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Albert Finney and Al Pacino to win his first and only Best Actor Oscar for Harry and Tonto (1974). Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 63-65. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. In playing the 72-year-old Harry Coombes in Harry and Tonto (1974), the 55-year-old Carney convinced director Paul Mazursky by growing his own mustache, whitening his hair, wearing his own hearing aid and not trying to mask the limp he received from a World War II injury. It was while appearing in "The Odd Couple" on Broadway that Carney suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by the failure of his twenty-five-year first marriage. He was forced to leave the play and enter a sanitarium for nearly six months. First appeared as Ed Norton, the foil for star Jackie Gleason's character Ralph Kramden, when The Honeymooners (1955) was a regular skit between 1951 and 1952 on the DuMont Network's television program Cavalcade of Stars (1949). His radio role as Philly on "The Joe and Ethel Turp Show" foreshadowed his Honeymooners characterization of Ed Norton. Through his brother Jack, a musical booking agent, Carney landed his first show-business job in 1936, as a mimic and novelty singer for Horace Heidt's band. Due to this association with Heidt, he made his unbilled film debut with Pot o' Gold (1941) as a band member and radio announcer. Appears as Ed Norton, with Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Honeymooners (1955). The stamp was issued 11 August 2009.

Marion Lorne MacDougal or MacDougall (August 12, 1883 – May 9, 1968), known professionally as Marion Lorne, was an American actress of stage, film, and television. After a career in theater in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life played small roles in films and television. Her recurring role as Aunt Clara in the comedy series Bewitched, between 1964 and her death in 1968, brought her widespread recognition, and she was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Lorne was born in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, a small mining town halfway between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. She was the daughter of William Lorne MacDougall MD, and his wife, Jane Louise (née Oliver), known as "Jennie". She was born in 1883 including the date inscribed on her urn (which appears to be erroneous), The 1900 United States Census (enumerated in June 1900) gives her age as 16 and, along with the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), lists her year of birth as 1883. Her parents were Scottish and English immigrants. She had a younger brother, Lorne Taylor MacDougall (October 20, 1893 – September 5, 1943). She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Career Lorne debuted on Broadway in 1905; she also acted in London theaters, enjoying a flourishing stage career on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In London she had her own theater, the Whitehall, where she had top billing in plays written by Walter C. Hackett, her husband. None of her productions at the Whitehall had runs shorter than 125 nights. After appearing in a couple of Vitaphone shorts, including Success (1931) starring Jack Haley, she made her feature film debut in her late 60s in Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. From 1952-55, she was seen as perpetually confused junior high school English teacher Mrs. Gurney on Mister Peepers. From 1957 to 1958, she co-starred with Joan Caulfield in the NBC sitcom Sally in the role of an elderly widow who happens to be the co-owner of a department store. It was cancelled after one 26-episode season. Although afraid of live television, declaring, "I'm a coward when it comes to a live [television] show", she was persuaded to appear a few times to promote the film The Girl Rush with Rosalind Russell in the mid-1950s. Between 1958 and 1964, she made regular appearances on The Garry Moore Show (1958–1962). Her last role, as Aunt Clara in Bewitched, brought Lorne her widest fame as a lovable witch who is losing her powers due to old age (and whose spells usually end in disaster). Aunt Clara usually visited by coming down the chimney; her hobby was collecting doorknobs, and she often brought her collection with her on visits. Lorne had an extensive collection of doorknobs in real life, some of which she used as props in the series. Death She appeared in 27 episodes of Bewitched and was not replaced after she died of a heart attack in her Manhattan apartment on May 9, 1968, aged 84, prior to the start of production of the show's fifth season. She is interred at Ferncliff Cemetery in Greenburgh, New York. Posthumous The producers of Bewitched decided that Lorne's character as Aunt Clara could not be replaced by another actress. (Aunt Clara was never mentioned in any subsequent Bewitched episode.) Comedic actress Alice Ghostley was recruited to fill the gap as "Esmeralda", a different type of older witch with wobbly magic whose spells often went astray. Coincidentally, Lorne and Ghostley had appeared side-by-side as partygoers in the iconic comedy-drama film The Graduate, made the year before Lorne's death. She received a posthumous Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Bewitched. The award was accepted by Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery. Personal life In 1911, she married playwright Walter C. Hackett. They were married until his death in 1944. The couple had no children.